The Early History of India, from 600 B.C. to the Muhammadan Conquest, including the Invasion of Alexander the Great c23.3

c23.3

The leading tenet of Asoka's Buddhism, as of the cognate Jain system, and some varieties of Brahmanical Hinduism, was a passionate, uncompromising belief in the sanctity of animal life. The doctrine of the absolute, unconditional right of the meanest animal to retain the breath of life until the latest moment permitted by nature, is that of the edicts; and was based upon the belief that all living creatures, including men, animals, gods, and demons, form links in an endless chain of existence, or rather of 'becoming'.¹